Hydroxychloroquine No Aid for COVID-Related Mortality

Hydroxychloroquine alone or with azithromycin associated with abnormal electrocardiogram findings.

HealthDay News – Treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, or both is not associated with improvements in in-hospital mortality, according to a study published online May 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Eli S. Rosenberg, PhD, from the University at Albany School of Public Health at the State University of New York, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed data from a random sample of all admitted patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in 25 New York metropolitan hospitals between March 15 and 28, 2020. The analysis included 1438 hospitalized COVID-19 patients (59.7% male; median age, 63 years).

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“The findings of the present study should be considered in concert with recent COVID-19 treatment guidelines from the National Institutes of Health and Infectious Diseases Society of America as well as the statement regarding safety concerning use of hydroxychloroquine from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” the authors write.